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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097111">Don't Go Blind From The Stars In Your Eyes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaijuvenom/pseuds/kaijuvenom'>kaijuvenom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Space Force (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Star Trek, Chief Engineer Angela Ali!, Featuring, M/M, Science Officer Chan!, Vorta!Tony, although she doesn't actually appear in the first chapter, and yes i meant for this to be a oneshot but, based off of star trek deep space nine, i dont think so, i left it open-ended on accident, is it character death if u just get cloned again, should i have tagged major character death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 04:00:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097111</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaijuvenom/pseuds/kaijuvenom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Chan found his job quite boring. Less boring than San Francisco, but still boring, and with far less real food. He missed real food. And real air. And not being bored all the time. Enter F. Tony, an alien who takes it upon himself to cause Chan endless headaches, entertainment, and a very concerning and confusing crush.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Don't Go Blind From The Stars In Your Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay buddies here is a star trek crash course, uh skip this if u dont want my bad explanation of the plot of star trek: deep space nine.<br/>SO,, The United Federation of Planets (which is what it sounds like) has an exploration/often militarized force (made up of humans and aliens who are members of the Federation) called Starfleet, which is based off the structure of the US Navy (it’s basically Space Force + aliens - racist white guys bc this takes place ~300 years into the future, ya feel me?). The Federation exists in the Alpha Quadrant of the universe. On a space station called Deep Space Nine, a wormhole that led to the previously unexplored Gamma Quadrant was found. There were some hostile aliens in a group called the Dominion, comprised of the Founders/Changelings (basically the leaders), the Jem’Hadar (dependant on specific stimulants/drugs that could only be provided by the Founders), and the Vorta (cloned + completely controlled by the Founders), who tried to take over the Alpha Quadrant. They fought a war, the Founders lost, and surrendered, and that’s where the canon timeline ends. What I wrote takes place in the years after the Dominion war, when things between the Federation and the Dominion are still tense, sorta like,,, idk its like the cold war. They’re all just spying on each other. The End.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chan didn’t have anything against his job, in fact, he enjoyed it most of the time. It was still boring, though. Less boring than working at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, but still surprisingly boring. </p><p>He’d jumped at the chance to explore a new quadrant of the galaxy as the science officer on one of the newest starships in the fleet, the <em> Pegasus</em>, even beating out the literal android who’d applied for the same position. So far, he had yet to find any sentient vibrating flowers or silicon-based cave-dwelling life forms, and it’d been eleven months. He was beginning to give up hope on anything out of the ordinary ever happening when the <em> Pegasus </em>had a run-in with a ship carrying exactly one (1) person (or rather; alien) who decided to make it his personal duty to cause Chan endless headaches.</p><p>“Tony,” Chan repeated, staring disbelievingly at the Vorta standing in front of him. “Tony,” he said again, just to make sure he heard right and hadn’t just had a stroke in the middle of the alien introducing himself.</p><p>Just Chan’s luck that the first Gamma Quadrant alien he ever encountered would be named Tony. What a letdown.</p><p>“F. Tony Scarapiduci,” the Vorta said, looking quite proud of himself, before leaning down, lowering his voice. “Did I do that right? I tried to give myself a Human name.”</p><p>Ah, well that made more sense. It was still disappointing, though. “Usually the initial is for the middle name. And it’s a Western name, not traditional for Humans everywhere. Lots of us have our family names first.”</p><p>The Vorta knit his eyebrows together. “Western?” He asked, and even the Universal Translator couldn’t properly remove all the traces of his accent as he attempted to say the word. “Did I offend you? I asked the guy at the front, on the intercom thing when we talked, he said it was okay.”</p><p>“The guy at the front?” Chan repeated, hiding a laugh behind his hand. Tony had a strange way of speaking. As far as he knew (and he didn’t know much about Vortas, to be honest) they were traditionally diplomats, clever and outgoing, generally likable, and well-spoken. Although his information was probably inaccurate if Tony was any indication. </p><p>“Yeah! You know, one with the…” he paused, leaning over even further to examine the round pins on the collar of Chan’s uniform, making him feel even shorter than he usually did. “He had more… dots on his outfit than you do.”</p><p>Chan snorted, looking down at the floor briefly before back up at Tony, who was standing much closer to Chan than he had been before. Chan found that he didn’t actually mind, oddly enough. </p><p>“Captain Naird?” Chan offered, fairly certain the only two people Tony had talked to had been the Captain and the Chief Medical Officer when he’d gotten an examination, </p><p>Tony snapped his fingers, and it took Chan a second to realize he was doing finger guns. “That’s the one!”</p><p>“Uhuh,” was really all Chan could say to that. He’d been briefed, of course, on the unplanned pickup of a Vorta who was allegedly a Starfleet-approved spy. The jury was still out on that one. Either Tony was a terrible spy or a brilliant one, or perhaps he just acted differently when doing his spying, because he was currently oozing suspicion. Chan had the gut feeling he’d been saddled with the Vorta not because he was the Science Officer, but because no one else wanted to deal with him. </p><p>Ever since the end of the war, when the Dominion had pulled out of the Alpha Quadrant, there’d been a mess of sabotage among the hundreds of cloning facilities the Dominion had used on the Vorta, which led to defective Vorta being cloned, which let to a bit of a Vorta uprising against the Dominion that had been quickly stamped out. That, of course, didn’t mean all the ‘defective’ clones had been killed. Tony was one of them, cloned with an intense hatred of the Dominion as opposed to worshipping and serving it. </p><p>Apparently whoever had sabotaged the cloning facility Tony had been in hadn’t wanted to stop at just that and had gone all out, probably programming <em> annoying as hell </em> directly into his genetics. Although, judging from what he’d heard from the crew on the space station closest to the Gamma Quadrant wormhole, the Vorta diplomat who’d represented the Dominion during the war hadn’t been much better. Perhaps it was xenophobic of Chan to think of him as annoying if they were simply an entire species of nuisances.</p><p>Chan, upon realizing he’d been staring into the void of space (not literally, he was actually staring at the wall behind Tony) for some time now, jumped out of his trance looked back at Tony, who was staring at him, smiling in a way that was somehow completely innocent while also conveying an incredible amount of mischievousness. </p><p>“I’m Doctor Chan,” Chan said, extremely belatedly.</p><p>“Is Doctor your family name or your other name?”</p><p>Chan blinked at him several times, processing the question. “Um. No.” Then he realized <em> no </em> was not an appropriate response to an <em> or </em>question, but he struggled for a better response.</p><p>“Relax, dude, it was a joke. I’m not <em> that </em>uninformed.” Tony clapped him on the shoulder, giving him yet another blindingly white smile, his purple eyes glowing with laughter, before turning away to examine Chan’s lab. Or rather, the Science Officers’ lab which was mostly Chan’s because no one else cared as much about alien fungi and bacteria so he was often alone and hence started thinking of it as ‘his lab’, but that was a mouthful. </p><p>Instead of telling Tony not to mess around with the dangerous equipment and poisonous liquids, he chose to watch his fiddling in silence. </p><p>“What’s this?” Tony asked, holding up a large jug clearly labeled ‘waste chemicals’.</p><p>“Waste chemicals,” Chan said. </p><p>“Do you need them?”</p><p>“They're waste. I throw everything I don’t need or that got contaminated in that bucket.” He paused, before adding, “it’s incredibly toxic. Probably shouldn’t move it out from under the vent,” just to make sure Tony was aware. </p><p>“So you’d throw this out eventually?” Tony asked, holding the jug of toxic waste as easily as one would a milk jug. </p><p>“Yes? That is what one usually does with toxic chemical waste.”</p><p>Tony nodded in confirmation as if Chan had just given him permission to do something terrible which Chan had yet to comprehend, and then he popped the lid of the jug, held it up to his mouth… and chugged toxic waste. </p><p>Really, there was nothing Chan could do but watch and stare, his mouth hanging open in shock.</p><p>Tony had swallowed roughly half of it before setting it back down and making the kind of satisfied noise one might make after having a refreshing sip of milk tea on a summer day. “Spicy,” he commented, and Chan could really do nothing but stare at him. </p><p>The information caught up to him, far too belated for it to do anything about his complete shock and horror, but at least to calm him and prevent him from beaming them both directly to sickbay. Vortas were immune to poison. He knew that, he should’ve remembered that, but then again, the sight of someone coming into his lab and chugging half a jug of toxic waste had caused his mind to temporarily short circuit.</p><p>“Would be better with some more hydrofluoric acid, to really give it that kick, but-“</p><p>“Is there a reason you’re here?” Chan interrupted, trying not to sound either annoyed or amused, even though those were the only two emotions Tony seemed able to inflict. </p><p>“Apparently I’m not allowed to wander the ship on my own,” Tony said easily, placing the lid on the toxic waste jug and putting it back under the vent. Chan knew that, but really, it still felt unnecessary. He watched Tony warily, partially worried he’d drink more acid from his storage cupboard. </p><p>“Right. Maybe you should be in the brig. I do have a job that doesn’t involve-”</p><p>Chan broke off as Tony reached over and brushed some hair off of Chan’s forehead. </p><p>“That’s soft,” he commented, as Chan blinked at him. </p><p>“Yeah. It’s hair," Chan said, trying to sound normal. "Not like you don't have it too."</p><p>Tony didn’t say anything else for a minute, instead, he went back to wandering the lab, tilting his head as he examined the various instruments and specimens Chan had picked up along his assignment.</p><p>“Do you like it here?” Tony asked as he wandered the lab, not touching anything but examining things awfully closely.</p><p>“Here, meaning my lab, or…?”</p><p>“The Gamma Quadrant,” Tony clarified, to which Chan shrugged. </p><p>“Not as interesting as I thought it’d be.”</p><p>Tony nodded, glancing over at Chan before looking away again. “Well, here’s something interesting. I need to bring the Founders back ‘undeniable proof’ that I'm on their side. They don’t ‘like or trust’ me.” He used air quotes while speaking, and Chan had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Where had a Vorta even learned sarcastic air quotes from anyway?</p><p>“And you came to the <em> Pegasus</em>? You should’ve gone somewhere else for that. We don’t get a single interesting thing here.”</p><p>“It wasn’t my choice. You were the closest Starfleet ship, but come on, you’re smart, you’ve gotta have something.”</p><p>Chan raised an eyebrow as Tony turned to face him, his eyes still searching the lab curiously. </p><p>“Some kinda… secret weapon, even like, a blueprint would be cool, you could just make one up right now, like, I dunno, a…” he trailed off for a second, apparently lost in thought, before he leaped forward, snapping his fingers, making Chan jump. “Like an invisibility cloak! Do you guys have those?”</p><p>Why was Chan still here. What was his purpose, if not to simply stare at this Vorta named F. Tony in complete and utter incredulity. “Yes,” he finally answered blandly. “Everyone’s wearing one but me,” he said, gesturing around the lab. Maybe if he freaked Tony out long enough, he could get him to leave. </p><p>“That’s-” Tony broke off, looking around the room with new suspicion as Chan got back to work examining a <em> totally </em>fascinating new form of fungi they’d come across at the last planet they’d visited. Chan considered naming said fungi Scarapiduci. </p><p>“That’s not real, you’re fucking with me.” </p><p>Chan spared a glance over at him and could barely suppress the smile that formed as he watched Tony wave his arms around the lab in an attempt to catch the nonexistent invisibility cloak wearers. </p><p>“No, that’s not real. Let’s think of something real together.”</p><p>Chan would, in fact, rather do anything else than that. He was having a splendid time watching Tony wave his arms around and squint suspiciously at nothing. It was kind of cute if he was being honest. But he chose not to delve into how that thought had appeared, completely unprompted, into his head.</p><p> </p><p>********</p><p>The dates, at least, before Tony’s unprompted arrival on the <em> Pegasus </em>, all seemed to blend together, months dragging on with no discernible end in sight. The dates after Tony’s arrival were distinct, Chan found himself thinking about Tony all too often, the way his eyes would light up when Chan would show him some piece of technology the Founders hadn’t let him have access to or let him drink some of his leftover chemicals and make deadly cocktails with them. </p><p>It was against protocol to let a non-Starfleet member on an away team, and Tony wasn’t <em> technically </em> a member of Starfleet, his title was more perfunctory, he’d never graduated the Academy or worn a uniform or spent hundreds of hours memorizing rules and regulations that would promptly be ignored and trampled to dust by the Captain. Despite that, Naird let Tony on all the away teams with Chan (see: Starfleet Captains blatantly ignoring rules and regulations). If anyone ever asked, he’d say it was because Tony was from the Gamma Quadrant, his knowledge of the planets they mapped would be helpful, but really he only allowed it because Chan had followed him around for twenty minutes before he gave in. </p><p>The away teams usually consisted of Chan, Tony, First Officer Mallory, the geologist or xenobiologist, and the Security Officer, whose name refused to stay in Chan’s mind. Not that he’d ever tried particularly hard. It was a miracle he even remembered the First Officer’s name. </p><p>Usually, Tony would drag Chan away from the rest of the group under the guise of ‘research is easier and more efficient in smaller, separated groups’ and tell him about the local flora and fauna of the planet. Sometimes he would even pick some native plant and present it to Chan while bowing dramatically. Chan was beginning to find his annoyance bearable, perhaps even likable. He hadn’t exactly made any friends save for Commander Ali, but she and Chan worked different shifts in different areas of the ship doing completely different jobs, rarely coming in contact with each other. The Science Lab was on the other side of the ship from Engineering--and for good reason, but it meant Chan rarely saw Angela outside the occasional times they’d run into each other or both be eating a meal outside of their quarters simultaneously. </p><p>In summation, Chan thought of Tony as a friend. At least, he was fairly certain he did. His face popped up in Chan’s mind at inopportune moments and he tended to think far more than he’d like about times when Tony had brushed a hand through his hair or took his hand to show him some hidden cave on a planet they were exploring. That was probably friend behavior, right? Either that or he had a crush, and Chan was adamantly against that idea. He certainly would <em> not </em> be playing into the commonly held belief that Human Starfleet officers were all xenophiliacs. Because he <em> wasn’t </em>. Sure, he found alien cultures interesting, but it wasn’t like he’d ever dated someone with a transparent skull or ran away with a Cardassian. Because he wouldn’t. </p><p>He was pulled directly out of his train of thought by Tony, who was once again attempting to figure out what exactly he could bring the Founders to convince them he totally wasn’t a spy for the Federation. </p><p>“What are eugenics, anyway?” Tony asked. He was currently scrolling through a database entitled <em> Federation History of the 21st Century</em>. </p><p>“Illegal,” Chan responded instantly, which was his go-to answer whenever Tony suggested anything, but this time he really meant it. </p><p>Tony flicked off the holoprogram and laid down on the desk he’d been sitting on, his head hanging off the edge as he stared at Chan upside-down. “Why?”</p><p>“It’s morally objectionable,” Chan said, sparing a glance at him before going back to his current experiment--stimulating the growth of the fungi Scarapiduci (yes, he had named it that) to examine its reproduction speed and abilities. </p><p>“But you still do it,” Tony pointed out, and Chan squinted at the fungus, taking a moment to answer. </p><p>“<em>I </em>don’t. It’s illegal. And morally questionable. I wouldn’t do it.” Not that he wanted children, but he certainly wouldn’t have highly illegal and dangerous procedures performed on his hypothetical children just to make them smarter, or more attractive, or whatever. </p><p>Tony hummed thoughtfully and turned the holoprogram back on, continuing to read silently, his head still hanging upside-down off the desk. </p><p>“What if you had a good reason too?” He asked suddenly, and Chan sighed, abandoning all attempts at working to direct his attention to the philosophical debate Tony was apparently hellbent on engaging him in.</p><p>“I wouldn’t. Genetically modifying people against their will--and even at all--is wrong, full stop.”</p><p>“What if…” Tony began, sitting up and spinning himself around on the desk to face Chan, knocking over and breaking an Erlenmeyer flask as he did so.”They were already modified, and… and you were fixing it. Just a little bit. Like one little…” He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was frustrated. “Just one thing.” </p><p>“You mean you want me to help you,’ Chan said, the realization dawning on him. “With the way you’ve been… cloned.” </p><p>Tony nodded, biting his lip, and Chan felt bad for not having realized it sooner. </p><p>“What would you want to be different?”</p><p>Tony shrugged, and the topic was abandoned at that once he didn’t respond to Chan’s prompts, and apparently forgotten, because Tony didn’t bring it up again. </p><p> </p><p>********</p><p> </p><p>The day Tony was meant to leave crept up slowly, so slowly, in fact, that neither of them noticed it until Captain Naird called them up to the Bridge to ask for the coordinates of where Tony would be dropped off. Because apparently, they were hours away.</p><p>The world crashed down on Chan at that moment, because--because he couldn’t lose Tony? Would they ever even see each other again? Tony hadn’t gotten that <em> irrefutable proof </em>the founders had wanted from him, what if they killed him and chose not to clone him again? What if-- a hand on his shoulder reminded him he was currently being stared at by several bridge officers at once, looking at him as if he knew the answer to whatever question it was that someone had posed.</p><p>“Sorry, what?” He glanced around, trying to remain polite and centered. He looked over at Tony, who was on the other side of the Bridge, talking to the Bajoran Ensign over at communications. She was very pretty, Chan thought her name might be Hannah or something like that, he knew Tony had introduced them at some point (ironic how Tony was the one introducing Chan to people who literally worked with him), but damn if he remembered. All he was really thinking about was how close they were as they spoke, how the Ensign would laugh and smile at everything he said, causing Chan to feel a large surge of jealousy. </p><p>It was unfair that Tony was choosing to spend what might be his final hours on the <em> Pegasus </em> with someone whose name Chan didn’t even know. Did <em> she </em> help him mix up poisonous cocktails and rank them in a definitive list? Was <em> she </em>the one Tony spent the majority of his time with, asking (occasionally annoying) questions about her work and hovering over her like a hummingbird? He didn’t think so. </p><p>He’d missed the question again. Someone nudged his arm to get his attention and he blinked several times, tearing his eyes away from Tony. </p><p>“I’m sorry, I’m… not feeling well,” he said, and then he practically ran to the turbolift, taking it down to his quarters. He couldn’t handle this, or rather, he <em> could</em>, but he didn’t want to. He’d rather not. </p><p>“Chan?” He heard Tony call out after him, but the turbolift doors slid shut before he could say anything else. Chan practically bolted down the hall to his quarters, and he would’ve slammed his door shut behind him if he could. That was something he missed about Earth. His parents’ house had been old and they’d never bothered upgrading it too much, choosing to leave the old wooden doors that Chan had very much enjoyed slamming shut behind him during his preteen years. </p><p>He sighed, heading over to his replicator. </p><p>“New York cheesecake. Cut into bite-sized squares, with toothpicks in each square. And a cup of tea. Hot.”</p><p><em> Specify flavor, </em>the replicator said, shaking Chan out of his thoughts. </p><p>“Oh. Um… pomegranate white tea.” He watched as a cup of hot tea and the cheesecake squares appeared inside the replicator and then proceeded to stare at them for a rather long amount of time for someone to stare at a snack before he took the cup of tea and stared into its depths.</p><p>His door buzzed, signaling someone wanted to come inside, startling him out of his stupor. Not really wanting to speak to anyone at the moment, he sighed and didn’t answer. The door buzzed again, and then a third time.</p><p>As it buzzed for the fourth time, Chan called for it to unlock and let it slide open. </p><p>“Tony,” he said, right as Tony began speaking, entering his quarters without an invitation as he was apt to do.</p><p>“Were you really gonna make me leave without saying bye? I thought we were <em> friends</em>, Chan.”</p><p>As unphased as Chan was by Tony barging into his quarters without a second thought, he was genuinely startled by his words. He sounded hurt. </p><p>“We are,” he said, setting his teacup down and instead fiddling with the buttons on his lab coat. Button, unbutton, button, unbutton, button--</p><p>“So what’s the deal, then?” </p><p>Unbutton, button, unbutton--</p><p>“I’m gonna miss you,” Chan said, wondering vaguely if he was succeeding at keeping his voice even. “More than I thought I would.”</p><p>“And I don’t want to go back.” </p><p>Chan glanced up from his lab coat buttons. “No?”</p><p>“No. I love it here.” </p><p>Frowning, Chan continued his fiddling. Button, unbutton. “Everyone hates you. Naird has tried to have you locked up in the brig or left on an uninhabited planet seven times.” Button, unbutton. It was an unconscious activity at this point, his fingers finding something to do without his brain even continuing to think about it.</p><p>“There are other things to love about this ship,” Tony conceded, shrugging. He stepped over to the wall of Chan’s quarters, pressing a button on the wall to let the curtain open. It was hard to have a bad view on a Starship, that was the beauty of space travel. It changed every day, new stars, new planets, new galaxies. They weren’t in warp at the moment, so it looked almost as if they were standing still, staring up at the sky from a planet, out in the fresh air, not traveling in a giant spaceship. “Like the views,” he said, gesturing at the window as he looked back at Chan, sitting down on the edge of the rounded windowsill. </p><p>Button.</p><p>Chan tried not to think about how Tony had been looking at him when he’d said that. </p><p>Unbutton.</p><p>Tried not to think about the <em> way </em>Tony had been looking at him when he’d said that. </p><p>Button.</p><p>“Before I go, I just wanted you to know. You mean a lot to me. You’ve been my first friend here, I mean except Hannah, but she’s more of a frenemy, you know? You’re really my first <em> friend</em>. My only friend, if we’re being honest. And as cheesy as this’ll sound, that means a lot to me,” Tony said. </p><p>Chan managed a small smile, still refusing to look Tony in the eye. “Lighten up a little, you make it sound like you’re dying.”</p><p>Tony smiled at him, but his smile wasn’t entirely genuine. Something was wrong. Chan looked up at his eyes. They weren’t sparkling. It was like their beautiful violet light had died. He didn’t say anything. </p><p>“What?” Chan asked. Unbutton. Button, unbutton, button.</p><p>Tony swallowed, then looked back out the window at the stars, or maybe into the inky nothingness between the stars. “When I go back, they’ll kill me,” he said as if it were something that happened all the time. Maybe it did. Chan had never asked how many Tony clones had existed in the past before the one that sat in his quarters now. He’d always been curious, the same way he was curious about whether or not he remembered dying, whether or not it hurt, if he thought about it when he closed his eyes at night to sleep. But he’d never asked. It’d seemed insensitive. Now he was beginning to wish he had. </p><p>“When they clone me again, I’ll want to work for them to worship them as gods, like I did before the cloning facility was sabotaged. Right now, they don’t know I’m ‘defective’,” those damn air quotes again, “but I won’t be able to hide it from them. As soon as they find out, that’s it for F. Tony number twelve.”</p><p>Well, that solved the question of how many Tony’s had existed before this one. “<em> What? </em> But-- but you--you’re--? Does Starfleet know? I thought they approved your mission, I mean, you’ve been compiling reports on the Founders and sending them out, the information you’ve given Starfleet, they wouldn’t just <em> let you die </em>.” Even as he said it, he wasn’t so sure. It was an easy out for them. Just some random spy who gave them useful information, but he was too untrustworthy to really care about. Not important enough to protect, and definitely not important enough for Starfleet to kill themselves. He’d done all he could that would benefit Starfleet. </p><p>“But why do you have to go back? Why can’t you just… not?”</p><p>“Because I want to see you again,” Tony said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “And I won’t be able to if the Founders are hunting me. And Starfleet wouldn’t be too happy with me either. I’m supposed to go back. It’s in my orders from them.”</p><p>“You can’t-- I don’t--don’t-- you aren’t doing this for <em> me</em>,” Chan said, feeling rather breathless and at the same time like his lungs were too full of air that he couldn’t get out fast enough. </p><p>“I am,” Tony said, again, like it was the easiest goddamn thing. “They’ll clone a new me, I’ll probably be an asshole, and,” he paused, taking a long breath like he was preparing for something, but Chan beat him to it.</p><p>“I’ll find you.” Despite the tears threatening to spill from his eyes, Chan let out a small laugh. “That’s why you were asking me about eugenics. Genetically modifying people. You want me to…” he trailed off, making a vague hand gesture. He turned away, unable to complete his thought. </p><p>“The idea popped into my head, yeah,” Tony said, and Chan could feel his eyes on him as he took his plate of previously-forgotten cheesecake bites off the replicator.</p><p>“I’ll do it,” Chan said as he sat down at his dining table across from Tony, setting the plate down. He picked up one cheesecake chunk by its toothpick like it held the key to the universe. </p><p>“Yeah?” Tony asked, looking back at him, and that light was back, the shining violet Chan had grown so accustomed to. </p><p>“Yeah,” Chan confirmed, holding out the toothpick-ed cheesecake to Tony, who took it with a soft smile.</p><p>“Thanks,” he said softly, and Chan wasn’t sure whether he meant for the snack or what he’d agreed to do for Tony. “I shouldn’t eat this, Vortas don’t have the taste buds for food. But thanks."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>star trek character/episode subtle reference tally is only at 5 so i really held myself back i think</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/davidrosekinnie">Twitter</a><br/>also big shoutout to sammy (@spceboyfriends on twitter) for tweeting so much about chantony you got me to stan it</p></blockquote></div></div>
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